In the United States, millions are affected by neck pain. Most patients respond well to non-surgical treatments. However, many others are required to find other solutions to alleviate the pain. If the neck pain persists and in addition, other symptoms such as arm pain and neurological dysfunction occur, the cause may be a cervical intervertebral disc that has herniated. A disc herniates when some of the disc's gel like center bulges or ruptures through the outer ring of the disc and presses on nerve roots or the spinal cord. Surgery is an option for those suffering from this type of nerve compression. To alleviate the pain, a surgeon may perform a procedure called an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. In this procedure the surgeon makes a small incision in the front of the neck to reach the cervical spine. The disc is removed and the space is filled with a bone graft. A cervical plate is then screwed into the superior and inferior vertebral bones, which stabilizes the cervical spine facilitating fusion and healing.
However, a second surgery may be required to repair bone injuries to adjacent bone segments. Adjacent segment disease is a documented problem within the human cervical spine. As a result, surgeons currently remove the plate that was used to the fuse the original segment and position a new plate in its position. Other solutions to overcome this problem have been used. In one instance, the original plate is lifted up at one end and a larger second plate is positioned underneath the original plate and tightened down, thereby compressing and stabilizing the original plate and the new larger plate. However, the procedural requirement along with the size and connection method for this solution have created additional problems. Thus, the present art does not provide a novel system for additional plates to be attached to the base plate with ease, i.e. minimal incision during surgery. Therefore, there is a need for a cervical plating system having the ability to incorporate additional plates that can be attached to the base plate with minimal surgery time and alleviate the problems associated with adjacent segment disease.